St Dominic High School - Torch Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

Page 38 text:

QFAO !AI'OllgA ,AE y?al':l Twelve years ago, thirteen for those of us who had a year of kindergarten, in the old red brick school on Sedgwick Street, many of our class began the eventful years of their scholastic career. The world war was in pro- gress. Fathers were away in service. Mothers were busy with war work. In the process of canonization was the little Italian religious who had worked in our very neighborhood, and the original Frances Cabrini Housing Project named in her honor was soon to be a reality. But its progress meant that some of us born under the shadows of St. Dominic's spires soon saw our homes in the hands of the wreckers. Blighted though they were, those Old buildings were dear to our hearts. But that was only the heginning of change. Soon we were to leave behind us the steep, footworn stairways, the grimy, water-stained walls and splintered g floors of the old school, loved for all its dreariness. September of 1945 saw us in solemn procession down Chicago Avenue, carrying such loads as our small arms could manage, in the great removal ceremony, under the direction of Sister Mary Patrize, principal, when the John Quincy Adams grade school build- ing became our new home. It too left much to be desired in the way of cleanliness, but was a handsome building in our eyes, and the new brick convent for the Sisters, next to the school, was palatial in com- parison with the dilapidated frame structure they were leaving. Our well-loved S. M. Vincent DePaul saw us through kindergarten, second and third grades, and S. M. St. Reginald through first: fourth and fifth and sixth were with Sisters Mary Amatora, Azella and Addolorata respectivelyg seventh saw our class split between Sisters Mary Catherine Rose and lgnatius Loyola , while in eighth we were reunited under S. M. Ignatius Loyola. Entering high school, ours was the first class large enough for two rooms, so we were again divided and under the direction of Sisters Mary Conso- I lina and Ivo. Initiation, a Ha1lowe'- , en dance, candle-lighting, a St. Pat- ' l j , X rick 5 day play and fashion show, featuring boy models, then a school picnic, and our freshman year was I OVCT.

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Page 39 text:

When we returned to school in September for our sophomore year, we found that ill health had deprived us of our loved S. M. Charles Borromeo, and S. M. Eduardus had come to take her place. S. M. Thaddeus and S. M. Marian were our Sophomore home room teachers. Latin with S. M. Eduardus, or business methods with S. M. Marian, English with our home room teachers, geometry with S. M. Thaddeus, biology with S. M. St. Joan of Arc, and best of all, religion with Father Raymond, really kept us busy. A skating party, a Valentine dance, a joint program of one-act plays and glee club choruses, a successful football and basketball season helped us enjoy the lighter side of life. It was that year that the pastor, the Reverend John Bosco, O. S. M. , established St. Dominic Church as the National Shrine of St. Peregrine, the Cancer Saint. All through our Sophomore and Junior years wrecking crews were busy demolishing residential and business places for blocks about us, preparing for an immense extension of the Cabrini housing project. The spirit of improvement caught hold in the school also, and one by one the high school classrooms andthe halls and stairways were redecorated. A new physics laboratory on the top floor, reconditioning of the auditorium, installation of a new boiler, Father Raymond's annual benefit dinner at the Morrison, all were signs that things were moving. The first yearbook, a paper-covered collection of pictures and memories, arrived as school was closing. Junior year saw us again a divided group, with Sisters Mary Florina and Marguerite Dolore as home room teachers. We heard rumors of an alumni association in the organizing. Red Cross activities, panel discussions, our banquet for the Seniors, and the skating party we sponsored , to gether with a series of intramural basketball games and the noontime dancing in the auditorium kept us busy and happy. Holding the ban- quet in the beautiful crystal room of the Sheraton Hotel was a very special treat. A school picnic at Marquette Park finished off the year. A bigger and better yearbook, sent to the printers in June, told the pic- ture story of our school year, even to its end. The school paper made its appearance that year, too, with three handsome issues, and how proud we were of it! Our Senior year was to prove the best as well as the last. Here we were a united class, with Sister Mary St. Joan of Arc as home room teacher. As soon as school was under way the choir got busy preparing music for the parish golden jubilee celebration on November 13. Father Raymond had been named pastor during the vacation, and his big task was to get ready for the great event. Scaffolding in the sanctuary meant the beginning of operations. At least that much of the church would be handsome when His Eminence